Mumsnet users share their tips for making learning fun for their children with VTech

[LucyBMumsnet]

This sponsored discussion is now closed. Thank you to everyone who shared their tips below

Helping your child learn about the world and everything in it is not always an easy task - from capturing their attention for more than 2 minutes, to finding the best way for them to remember the letters in their name, sometimes we parents have to come up with inventive ways to help our children learn. That’s why VTech’s Touch and Learn activity desk teaches children about letters, phonics, numbers, body parts, animals, music, shapes, colours (and more!), so to celebrate learning being both educational and fun, they would like to hear your tips on making learning a fun and enjoyable activity for your children.

Here’s what VTech has to say: “VTech is a world leader in age-appropriate and developmental stage-based electronic learning products for children. As a pioneer in learning toys, VTech develops high-quality, innovative educational products that enrich children's development, such as the Touch & Learn Activity Desk. This four-in-one desk features a writing pad, desk, blackboard and art station! Desk includes an interactive desktop, stylus and 4 double-sided touch pages filled with engaging content including letters, numbers, music, colours and much more. It also transforms from a desk into an easel and blackboard with plenty of storage space for art supplies to encourage play and discovery. The interactive LED display teaches letter and number stroke order. Also includes fun toy phone and music player featuring over 20 songs. Enjoy hours of fun as you create, discover and learn!”

So we are asking you, what are your ways of making learning fun for your children? Perhaps you have invented an all too catchy song to help them learn different numbers or maybe you’ve set up an at home science experiment which has left your kitchen looking a little worse for wear? Has a day out to the zoo, aquarium or museum helped your child learn more about the world? What trick has been most successful at getting your child to learn something new?

No matter how you make learning fun for your children, share your tips on this thread and you’ll be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £100 voucher for a store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs

My son is only young but loves animals so we visit a local zoo once a week (when not in lockdown) so he can see the animals and the noises they make.
We also have an ant farm so he can watch them nest and eat.

I get our cat to listen with DS to music and poetry lessons. He won't do them without her. She comes when calls and sits pefectly upright and blinks.

PLAY GAMES.
We love to play Monopoly, Hang Man, basketball ,even Minecraft can teach lots of different skills. I find that traditional games and making your own up are a great way for teaching. , if your child is interested in geography… make a simple “memory” card game with the countries and their capitals. There are so many great toys and tools to assist with teaching children various subjects and skills through play.
ENJOY MUSIC.
Some kids are naturally musical. find a CD that teaches them through song - I have a great times tables one and kings and queens of England.
BE ARTISTIC.
Create diagrams and make art to explore concepts. For example, if your child is asking questions about the stars and space get a roll of wallpaper out and draw the solar system. Then learn about the planets - and add the moons to each planet as an ongoing project - this was our faourite lockdown project - especially as Mars was more visible recently.

We bought some crayons we can use to draw on glass. Our 3 year old enjoys pretending to be a teacher and she is learning to write letters and numbers in this way. It's great because there is no additional clutter and it's easy to clean!

Lots of interesting trips, make everything fun, use their favourite toy/book/ in the learning and lots of encouragement

Making learning into a game. So with science we made some revision questions into a quiz show

Dont treat it like learning. My Daughter drew her Aunt a picture last night then wrote the envelope herself when I spelled out the words. Get them painting letters, making numbers from play doh, nerf war times tables....

Dont treat it like learning. My Daughter drew her Aunt a picture last night then wrote the envelope herself when I spelled out the words. Get them painting letters, making numbers from play doh, nerf war times tables....

Dont treat it like learning. My Daughter drew her Aunt a picture last night then wrote the envelope herself when I spelled out the words. Get them painting letters, making numbers from play doh, nerf war times tables....

Look out for toys with an educational value, (using a toy library as we do) and play together. Sing songs, have colourful posters in bedrooms, with countries, maps and times tables to chat about when you are in there playing and getting ready for school/nursery.

When our kids developed a love of watching Strictly Come Dancing we turned it into a fun way of learning.

Our surname is Curran so whilst the show is on TV each of us would take it in turns to dance our own version of the steps and the others would score them and then we would get our children to add the scores up. We called it "Strictly Curran Dancing" and our kids absolutely loved it - we told our sons teacher and she said it was the most creative thing she'd heard and still talks about it now, 4 years later.

We also turned the Eurovision Song Contest into an educational activity by having a map of europe on the wall and getting the kids to find each country on it as they performed. We had foods from each country and then researched them all afterwards.

We try to take things we do as fun or entertainment and add an educational twist to it - that way the kids don't even realise they are learning, they just see it as a fun activity.

We go for walks in the parks and look at the nature

Reading books and using magnets on paper to place around the house

Make it about stuff they want to do. They want to bake? Great: can they look through a cookbook, find a cake they like the look of, then read some of the recipe and weigh the ingredients? They want a comic? Great: can they add up the coins in their piggy bank to see whether there’s enough?

We like hands on learning. Whatever we need to do in the day, I'll talk as we go and get DS involved. So if I'm doing chores, I'll ask DS to get help and 'count' how many steps we need to hoover or send him to get me something with vague instructions (i.e. I need to sweep up this mess, can you find something that will work) so he has to think constructively.

I make it like a game... say whatever we're doing is a treat and it's mum and me time!

Before we took DS to the zoo, we got him this animal book. He'd point to whatever animal and we'd say the word. Sometimes he'd keep pointing again and again and again, because he wanted us to keep repeating it and so we did. Imagine this happening with various other stuff, like kitchen equipment etc. When he learned to talk, it was so easy for him to pick up on different words. And then when we finally took him to the zoo, he recognised all the animals.

For us, it's mainly practical and visual. We do a few catchy phrases sometimes, but DS copies us and it's so hilarious especially when it doesn't make sense.

I tried to get out and show them things in real life, so lots of museums, nature walks, art galleries and theatres.

Making it a family thing. Having family study time.

I pretend their teddies have to do home schooling too so that can introduce a competitive element - both between teddies and the child. Sometimes the teddies complain to each other about the injustice of having to learn spellings etc. and other times they congratulate each other on their inventiveness! My granddaughter thinks it's hilarious but it encourages her to learn. Who wants to be beaten by a teddy!!!

We try making up silly songs. We also make most learning a practical activity.

We try to include learning in the activities that we do, so when baking we are doing maths measuring and working out the quantities. We make up our own recipes and write them down to practice new words. When we go on country walks we rake activity sheets so they can learn about new animal/plants/ trees etc. I find if they are doing something that they enjoy they are learning without any effort.

Another family that used to do a lot of museum visits before lockdown. Theres always lots of reference books in our house and we take them to the library weekly - pre covid.

(This is making me sad again at the loss of non-classroom learning opportunities)

I think lots of different ways of repeating the same things, so things drawing letters on paper, electronic toys, modelling them out of clay, collage, shaping them out of toy cars. My top tip is to move their toys around, so swap something from their bedroom to the lounge and it's like it's brand new again

Just following his interests and Adding the learning to that eg, how many dinosaurs etc Also getting books out of the library that he’s interested in.